The United Methodist Church has a record low number of elders younger than 35 in part because of the more than 7,500 congregations leaving over its debate on homosexuality, according to a recent report.
The Lewis Center for Church Leadership of Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, D.C., released a report last month on the trends of clergy age in the Mainline Protestant denomination.
The UMC defines an elder as someone “ordained to a lifetime ministry of service, word, sacrament and order” who “is authorized to preach and teach God’s word, to administer the sacraments of baptism and Holy Communion, and to order the life of the church for mission and ministry.”
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According to the Lewis Center report, for this year, there are 398 UMC elders younger than 35. This marks a sharp decline compared to 1985, when there were 3,219 elders under 35.
The number is also less than half of the 852 elders under 35 that were reported in 2020, which would have marked the first full year that a process allowing churches to disaffiliate from the UMC over its debate on LGBT issues was implemented.
From 2019 to 2023, the UMC Book of Discipline included a measure known as Paragraph 2553, which created a process for disaffiliating from the denomination due to its years-long debate over whether to bless same-sex unions and ordain noncelibate homosexuals.
By the time Paragraph 2553 expired at the end of 2023, more than 7,500 congregations had successfully disaffiliated from the UMC through the process, according to UM News.
While elders younger than 35 have declined numerically, the report also noted that the percentage of UMC elders under 35 has slightly increased compared to last year, going from 4% of all elders in 2023 to 5% in 2024. In 1985, 15% of UMC elders were under 35.
The wave of disaffiliations from the UMC is not only considered a factor in the drop in elders under 35, but also a factor in the drop in the number of elders between the ages of 55 and 72.
“Among elders, it appears that losses occurred more among older (55-72) elders and young elders (under 35),” noted the report. “The 55-72 elder age group decreased to 50 percent in 2024 from 52 percent in 2023.”
“Unfortunately, it’s about what I expected,” said the Rev. Lovett H. Weems Jr., senior consultant of the Lewis Center, to UM News. “I think we’ve got another year that will be disaffiliation-affected.”
For decades, the UMC was involved in a debate over whether to change its rules to allow for the blessing of same-sex unions and the ordination of people in same-sex relationships.
Although efforts to amend the Book of Discipline to remove these rules always failed at General Conference, many theological progressive leaders refused to follow or enforce the standards.
In advance of this year’s General Conference, thousands of mostly theologically conservative churches left the denomination, with many joining the newly launched Global Methodist Church.
At General Conference earlier this year, delegates overwhelmingly approved measures to change the language to reflect socially progressive views on marriage and sexuality.
